PregVit and PregVit Folic 5: COR Kosher and Proud

As the saying goes, “Necessity is the mother of invention,”
and the aphorism couldn’t be more well suited to describe the history of
Duchesnay and its well-known products PregVit and PregVit Folic 5 -- the only
kosher certified prenatal multivitamins in Canada.

In the 1980s, a member of Quebec
based entrepreneur Louis Boivin’s family was experiencing a difficult
pregnancy. Her doctor prescribed her some medication, but her pharmacist
refused to release it to her, fearing that it would be dangerous for her unborn
baby because he had seen no scientific data describing the safety of the
medication on pregnant women. At the time, Mr. Boivin owned a pharmaceutical
distribution company but was surprised by the inability of the physician and
pharmacist to agree. He also saw a group of vulnerable people whose needs were
not being met, namely, pregnant women. At that moment, Mr. Boivin decided to
change the company’s mission – now Duchesnay – to be the first pharmaceutical
company to dedicate itself exclusively to pregnant woman. Years later, women
around the world are glad they did.

Duchesnay has a family of prenatal vitamins and medications intended
to be safely used during pregnancy. PregVit and PregVit Folic 5 are prescription
prenatal/postpartum vitamin-mineral supplements specially formulated for use in
women prior to conception, throughout pregnancy and during the postpartum/breastfeeding period.
It was developed to optimize the absorption of essentially needed nutrients
during pregnancy and breastfeeding, for example iron, calcium and folic acid.
Duchesnay also made sure to develop PregVit with the needs of pregnant women in
mind namely, small so it is easy to swallow, it doesn’t have an unpleasant
odour that exacerbates nausea symptoms and avoids unpleasant side effects that
pregnant women often experience with other vitamins such as constipation.

From its inception, PregVit enjoyed widespread adoption by
consumers, until it hit an obstacle of sorts.
Carole Boyer, Vice-President of
Corporate Affairs and Administration at Duchesnay explains, “Every week, we
were getting phone calls from consumers asking if PregVit was kosher. Women
would say ‘I am here with my rabbi, and I want to know if I can take PregVit.’
For us at Duchesnay, we knew that this was something we needed to do. Our
mandate is to make sure every woman has access to safe medications and we
didn’t want someone’s religious beliefs or dietary habits to act as an
impediment.” Necessity reared its head again and with the help of COR -- the
Kashruth Council of Canada, Duchesnay answered the call again by having PregVit
and PregVit Folic 5 go kosher.

Ms. Boyer admits that the process was not an easy one.
“PregVit has 27 active and inactive ingredients. We had to revisit every single
one to see if it was kosher. We needed to change certain things. We had at the
time meat by-products from gelatin and we had to change that. We had to make sure
PregVit and PregVit Folic 5 didn’t contain any animal by-products at all. We
needed to make sure that our manufacturing, packaging and handling processes
met the highest kosher standards. It was a very involved process but COR was
there to guide us through it, every step of the way. It was definitely worth it
because now we don’t get any phone calls anymore from kosher consumers because
we are kosher -- the only kosher pregnancy vitamins in Canada.” Also worth mentioning, both PregVit and
PregVit Folic 5 are gluten, lactose and tartrazine free.

PregVit’s kosher status has also helped Duchesnay with non
Jewish consumers as well. Ms. Boyer relates, “I have heard many of our
consumers say ‘I am not Jewish, but if it kosher, I know it was produced under
very strict rules and higher scrutiny. Someone has verified every ingredient,
how it is handled and packaged and every step is scrutinized.’ Kosher gives
many consumers a higher sense of security in the product. If there are two
products sitting side by side, one that is kosher and one that isn’t, they pick
the kosher one.”

Duchesnay has kind words to say about their partnership with
COR. “Duchesnay’s relationship with COR is fantastic. COR is extremely open minded,
knowledgeable and a pleasure to work with. They are strict, but that is what I
wanted, because I know what their standards are, and that is what kosher
consumers expect.” Ms. Boyer added, “I am the biggest ambassador of COR.”

Ms. Boyer wanted to impart one final message on behalf of
Duchesnay, “I just want to say that we are very proud of our kosher vitamins. I
would encourage any company, if they have a product that can be made kosher,
they should call COR and look into it. It’s worth it.”